His Habits Of Study--his Influence
In the midst of the cares and distractions, says his biographer, to
which the active duties of the ministry subjected O'Leary, he still
indulged his usual habits of study. No unexpected visitor ever found him
unoccupied: his reading was extensive, profound, and incessant; and his
hours of silence and retreat as many as he could abstract from the
necessary and inevitable claim of his flock, or could deny to the kind
imp
rtunity of his numerous and respectable acquaintance. Few men ever
possessed the power of enjoying an extensive influence over public
opinion more than O'Leary. Every thing he said or wrote was by every one
admired. The wise and learned were delighted with the original and
correct views which he took of every subject that employed his mind;
whilst the amiable simplicity of his manners, the endearing kindness of
his disposition, and the worth, purity, and uprightness of his life and
conduct, were claims to regard that could neither be denied nor
unattended to. It is, therefore, to be lamented that such transcendent
faculties should have remained suspended or inactive, or been, for a
moment, diverted in their application from their appropriate object or
natural sphere--the moral correction of the age.